Many single-use disposal packages for beverages are manufactured in so-called portion volumes, intended to be consumed straight from the package. The majority of these packages are provided with a drinking straw in a protective sleeve or envelope which is secured on the one side wall of the package. The packages, which may have parallelepipedic or tetrahedral configuration, are manufactured from a laminate with a core of paper or paperboard, with different layers of thermoplastics and possibly aluminium foil (Alifoil). On the one wall of the package, most often the upper or top wall, a hole has been punched out in the core layer and this hole is covered by the remaining layers of the laminate, which makes it possible to penetrate the hole with the drinking straw which accompanies the packaging container, and hereby consume the beverage contained in the package.
There have long existed machines in the art which apply drinking straws in their protective sleeves to packages which are conveyed through the machine. One such a machine is, for example, described in Swedish Patent Specification SE-424 847. These machines operate in that a belt of continuous drinking straw sleeves containing drinking straws is guided in towards and around a drive means. Adjacent the drive means there are devices for cutting the drinking straw belt into individual drinking straws enclosed in a protective sleeve or envelope, and means for applying this drinking straw on the side wall of the packaging container, the packaging container being advanced on a conveyor through the machine. The packaging container is, prior to the occasion of application, provided with so-called hot melt. Hot melt, which consists of molten plastic, adheres to the drinking straw sleeve and holds it in position when it sets. In order to be able to separate each drinking straw and apply the drinking straw on the package, the drive means must operate intermittently or at low speed, and the conveyor must advance the packages either intermittently or at low speed on each application occasion.
Another apparatus for applying drinking straws is disclosed in EP1042172, in which arms which are mounted on eccentric shafts move in towards the drive means and pick up a drinking straw. Thereafter, the arms take the drinking straw back and apply it on the packaging container. The eccentric shafts are disposed such that the arms, on the application of the drinking straw, accompany the packaging container. As a result, the conveyor with packaging containers need not be stopped on application of drinking straws. However, the design and construction involving arms placed on eccentric shafts is relatively heavy and cannot be employed at high speeds. With today's state-of-the-art and more rapid filling machines in which the packaging containers are manufactured, the demands have increased to evolve more rapid machines for applying drinking straws.